Orkut Blog

Find community topics, faster!

2012-05-16T13:08:00.002-03:00

While thousands of users search for information on Orkut at any given moment, thousands of topics are created every minute. Wait, did I really say minute?

With this in mind, we are excited to announce that users can now search for Orkut community topics and find updated results about topics they enjoy most, in just a matter of minutes.

Happy searching!

Posted by Daniel Fireman and Ralf Wildenhues, Google Engineers

Hot topics!

2012-05-10T17:53:00.000-03:00

Every day, many interesting discussions arise on our Orkut communities. Whenever we want
to join them, we have to access each of our communities and search for the most recently
created topics. With so much content, sometimes an interesting topic is overlooked simply
because we forgot to check in our communities.

As of today, we will show you a list of the “hottest” topics that are trending in your

communities to guarantee you never lose another interesting discussion. These hot topics can

be found on a new tab, called explore, that we added right on your main communities page.

In addition, you can also filter your results and select to view yesterday’s or last week’s hot
topics.

This way, it will be even easier to discover the most interesting discussions trending in your
communities!

Posted by Maira Nascimento, Google Engineer

Share your community posts with your friends!

2012-05-09T17:05:00.000-03:00

Sometimes, we are engaged in a discussion in one of our favorite communities and we want all of our friends from this community to join in. Today we’re making this super easy for you.
Whenever you create a new community topic or reply, you will have the option to send an update to all your friends who are also members of that community.

This way your friends can always keep up with what you post and maybe find some new and interesting discussions.

Posted by Marco Wisniewski, Google Engineer

Explore our communities

2012-04-26T18:21:00.000-03:00

We are now making it super easy to find all the great content related to your favorite topics on Orkut. In select communities, you will find a new box that shows the communities similar to the one you are currently visiting. This makes it easier to explore the enormous amount of content available on Orkut.

Similar communities are those that have a significant amount of members in common, which usually flags topics of common interest.

Try it out, we are certain that you will find new communities that you didn't even know existed!

Posted by Marco Wisniewski and Bruno Gusmão, Google Engineers

Listen to your favorite music on your Orkut

2012-04-10T12:36:00.000-03:00

What could be better than listening to your favorite favorite music? Sharing the experience with your friends! Now you can do this directly from your Orkut page: just type in the artist or band name on the YouTube search bar while we select a playlist for you to enjoy. You can watch your favorite video clips while using Orkut, or you can minimize and leave them as background music.

In addition, the songs you listen to will be posted as an activity onto your homepage, that way your friends can also listen along.

We hope you like it!

Posted by Eduardo Ferreira, Google engineer.

And now, the new Orkut!

2012-04-04T16:12:00.003-03:00

Hello Orkut Users!

If you use the old version of Orkut, you've noticed that some pages look different today. Your interface may be much cleaner and simpler. You may have noticed you have more options for personalization. You also may notice that moving around your profile may be much faster. That’s because starting today and over the next few months, we will begin rolling out the new version of the platform to all Orkut users.

You’ll remember that about 3 years ago, we announced that we were testing a new version of Orkut that would be faster and easier to use. We also gave you the option of choosing whether to stay with the version of Orkut that you were familiar with, or to move on to the adventure of the latest platform. Since then, we’ve continued to experiment and update Orkut based on your feedback so that we could offer the best experience possible. And you responded. Now most of you are using the newest version of Orkut, and over the next few months everyone will be using the new platform.

We realize that for some of you, this will take getting used to. However, we want to be able to offer everyone access to some of the exciting things we’re working on and will be bringing to Orkut in the future, at the same time. We look forward to your feedback! It will help us continue to make Orkut a place where you feel comfortable sharing with your friends and experiencing the best Google has to offer. If you have any questions or comments, find us on our Official Orkut Community! We look forward to hearing from you.

Posted by Hermes de Freitas, Bárbara Veloso, and Natália Duarte, Orkut team

Reggae for autumn

2012-03-30T17:42:00.010-03:00

Novelties and good news just keep coming on Orkut. We released a new theme upon the countless requests from those who are more than familiar with Bob Marley, who enjoy reggae music, and who knows, maybe even have dreads themselves. Another novelty is a theme for the autumn season, a time when nature puts on its own spectacular show. Now it's just about experimenting and enjoying these two new themes: reggae and autumn, perhaps to the sound of Roots, Rock and Reggae.

Posted by Koji Pereira, Google designer.

Themes, now available in your community

2012-03-29T21:42:00.000-03:00

With our eyes constantly on Orkut users, we've noticed that they love to customize their profiles. We are always trying to offer new and interesting themes since they are one of the most frequently requested options. We are happy to announce the introduction of theme options in communities.

If you are the owner of a community, you can now click on the "community themes" link and install a theme that best suits your community interface. Experiment with them and post your opinion on our forum!

Posted by Alberto Miranda, Google Engineer

Here are your fans

2012-03-14T16:58:00.003-03:00

Now you can tell your friends how you feel by using Orkut’s recently launched Vibes. We are happy to announce the return of a feature that was highly requested by long-time Orkut users. Yes, your fans are back and better than ever:

It's easy to become somebody's fan, just go to the person’s profile and click on the star, it will change colors and you will be added to his/her fans list;
Every time someone becomes your fan, there will be an update on Orkut where your friends can comment on and enjoy;
Older fans will automatically appear in this updated version, in other words, your fan club can only grow!

Posted by Koji Pereira, Google Designer.

International Women’s Day

2012-03-08T00:10:00.001-03:00

The creation of a specific date to recognize women started in the context of the Industrial Revolution and World War I, period when the female labor was introduced to the industrial field. The harsh and dangerous work conditions were frequently questioned by feminists groups aiming for equal rights.

The biggest and most important manifest was held in Russia when women went out on the streets to demand equality. Their action got traction and got stronger, and ended up anticipating the Russian Revolution in March 8th,1917.

On December of 1977 the International Women’s Day was made official by the United Nations in order to remember the feminine importance in the society, politics and economy.

To celebrate this amazing history, we created a doodle that represents the diversity and the worldwide importance of women from all countries and ethnics. They fought for and conquered fundamental changes for the world as we know it today. Congratulations to all women!

Posted by Maíra Nascimento, Google Engineer

What is your Vibe?

2012-03-07T13:10:00.004-03:00

Do you know that Orkut friend who you always wanted to show how cool you think he is? Now in Orkut you have 11 different ways to show how you feel about a person. To express your Vibe for someone, access your friend’s profile and click “Vibe?” in the left sidebar, under his/her photo. Every time you want to check what they think about you or about your friends, click on the number beside the “Vibe?” link (it will only appear if there is at least one Vibe).

Vibe is how you see a person. If your perception ever change, you will be able to change the Vibe you set for your friends whenever you want. Vibes received by your friends create activities in your home page so you always know about the different Vibes that are happening around you.

Oh, you can set a Vibe for yourself too so you tell your friends your today’s mood :)

Posted by Hermes Freitas, Google Engineer

A New Way to Answer Scraps

2012-02-17T11:44:00.001-02:00

We’ve just launched a convenient way to reply to your friend's scraps: simply reply to the scrap email notification and you're done! This is very handy since you can quickly reply to Orkut scraps without ever leaving your email client.

For security reasons, at this moment this feature is enabled only for Gmail and Yahoo! Mail users. More domains to come, stay tuned!

Daniel Fireman and Ralf Wildenhues, Google Engineers

Among soccer memories and extreme sports adrenaline

2012-02-09T15:07:00.000-02:00

Once many of you enjoy sports and try to live a healthy life, we decided to create two new themes with an inspiration in sports. One of them brings up radical sports figures to your screen while the other one is fully illustrated with great soccer players from the past so you can always enjoy famous soccer stars from all time in your Orkut.

Try and share this fun experience.

Posted by Koji Pereira, Google Designer

Hashtags in Orkut communities

2012-02-06T18:11:00.001-02:00

Our team continues working hard to improve Orkut communities, and today we are introducing a new feature: support for hashtags.

From now on, whenever you're reading a topic, all hashtags will be automatically highlighted and will link to our improved search page, where other posts with the same tag will show up. To create a hashtag, just type # before the hashtag (no spaces allowed), for instance if you post a new topic or a reply and write #hashtagsonorkut, this hashtag will be automatically highlighted. We hope that this gives you a new way of exploring all the content in our communities and that this lets you find what you want more easily.

For now, new hashtags take around one day to show up in search results. We will keep you updated as we continue improving this.

Try it and tell us what you think. Just use #hashtagsonorkut on your new topics and replies in any community!

Posted by Marco Wisniewski, Google Engineer

Between the electronic beat and the countryside

2012-01-26T15:11:00.000-02:00

We are excited with the feedback from our users about the new themes we have released lately. Because of this and following some suggestions from our users we now present another two new themes! For those who enjoy electronic music we have a great new Electronic theme. And for the ones aiming for the calmness of the countryside, we have a theme to remember the importance of taking a time to enjoy all that life has to offer.

Enjoy the new themes Drum Machine and Countryside!

Posted by Koji Pereira, Google Designer

Happy Birthday Orkut!

2012-01-24T00:29:00.000-02:00

Today is Orkut birthday! Brazil’s most loved social network is now 8 years old and in order to celebrate with you all, we created this Doodle which is grooming our page.

Almost a decade after its creation, it is still growing and getting better with the support from all of you who share news and meet your friends and interests on Orkut. It is a pride for us to be part of the lives of so many people using our social network.

Therefore, on Orkut’s birthday, we say thank you to all dozens of millions users and invite everyone to celebrate this date with us!

Posted by Koji Pereira, Google Designer

New themes to give life and diversify to your profile

2012-01-20T18:45:00.000-02:00

The orkut team in its quest to hear from the user community, continues its work and has news. Today we launched a theme for gamers and another one to encourage respect for diversity. Can you imagine that we would have so many surprises? Well, keep checking our blog and the next news.

Try and share this fun experience.

Posted by Koji Pereira, Google Designer

New app for iPhone and iPod touch!

2012-01-18T11:51:00.000-02:00

If you have an iPhone or iPod touch, you'll be happy with what we have for you today: a new Orkut app for your mobile iOS device.

With this version, you can access your friends' profiles, scraps, updates, birthdays, and even take pictures and send it directly to your Orkut albums. As always, your feedback is very important so please send us your comments and help us make an even better Orkut for you.

Download the new Orkut app today and stay connected with your friends and family anytime, anywhere - and get an exclusive badge to personalize your Orkut profile!

Posted by Ralf Botchen, Google Engineer

Invite your friends to dance in a fashion way

2012-01-13T11:44:00.001-02:00

Everybody knows that the samba is always current, right? Orkut team prepared two new themes that will make your profile look stylish and in the rhythm of samba. After all you need to be prepared to be in a good samba party. We created a theme about samba for those already warming the tambourines for the Brazilian carnival and a fashion theme for those who believe that style is more than just clothing.

Posted by Koji Pereira, Google Designer

A new option for your home page

2012-01-11T10:11:00.001-02:00

Many people ask us where to find the information that used to be available in the previous Orkut home page such as testimonials, friends requests and birthdays. To address this, we have created a new home page similar to the one in the previous version of Orkut. The page features the information right above the list of activities.

If you wish, you can continue using the current layout and switch between pages whenever you want by using the switch button located above the list of activities.

We hope you like it! And don’t forget to send us your suggestions.

Posted by Eduardo Ferreira, Google engineer.

Themes for a new year

2012-01-07T09:00:00.001-02:00

The new year is here and the Orkut team expects 2012 healthy year for you all, and a little rest too, right? On the vacations rhythm we created a special theme for those who want to get up early in a healthy way, but also another one for those who are always late ;) So come on, try and have a healthy new year and enjoy your vacations.

Posted by Koji Pereira, Google Designer

A 2012 full of news about Orkut communities

2012-01-06T14:21:00.000-02:00

Over the last months we have been working hard to introduce major improvements to Orkut communities.

Today we are offering a single page to organize all your communities where you can check all of the new topics. You can also check your pending membership requests and easily unjoin the communities you are a member of.

For the moderators, this page is also a community management center where they can approve or reject pending membership requests. We redesigned the approval process and now they can approve all pending members at once with a single click. Simple and faster!

It is now time to make the improvements available to all Orkut users and offer everyone the same experience:

Modern and smart design with new community profile, where you can also post videos
With automatic reply updates, the topics became big chat rooms! It's no longer necessary to refresh the topic page to check the updates, they'll appear automatically
Quickly reply to topics and polls with a single click
Want to comment to a specific reply in a topic? Just use "Quote" to get your comment clearer and simpler
Express your opinion by liking a topic. To do that, use to 11 different emoticons - and you may even find some hidden emoticons ;-)
Follow all your favorite communities e check all new topics from one single place: never loose a topic again!
Check who is writting: profile photos on topics, polls and replies
Coloured and funny view mode of polls results
Improvements to community owners and moderators: they can now manage their communities and close topics with unwanted discussions or reopen it later

Starting today, all Orkut users will have the same community interface and the same functionalities, ensuring that everyone can share ideas and express themselves in an improved way.

How about it? Wait, there's more: today we are also releasing a new version of the Orkut Android app with communities, so you keep updated on all the discussions, wherever you are.

We hope you like it! And don't forget to send us your feedback!.

Posted by Luis Pereira and Diogo Kropiwiec, Google engineers.

Themes to enjoy your holidays

2011-12-22T09:00:00.001-02:00

It is almost Christmas time and we are still working to build a better Orkut. The Orkut team has two presents this Christmas: a theme for those who enjoy martial arts and another theme for children at any age who love fun stories with animals.

So enjoy it and try it. The new year will come with many surprises. Curious? So are we!

Posted by Koji Pereira, Google Designer

Lastest news on communities this year

2011-12-19T18:53:00.000-02:00

After launching a complete communities redesign, as you probably had noticed, we are still launching new features for communities, like the live update on topics and the quote feature.

Thinking on how to make the user experience even better, we’ve added the “like” feature for topics. We are running a test of this feature and soon it will be expanded and improved. For now, you can use “like” on the first topic message. Show how you like the topics of a community using the emoticon that express your feelings best. Now enjoy this new feature and your holiday party, there’s a lot more comming next year!

Posted by Luís Guilherme Pereira, Google engineer

Happy Holidays!

2011-12-16T17:39:00.001-02:00

2011 went by very fast, but was full of new Orkut features. Communities were revamped and got more dynamic, and we got many new themes, badges, games and even a brand new Android app.

To celebrate the busy year and properly welcome 2012, we couldn't forget to create a special Happy Holidays badge! To get the badge, open your Orkut profile, click on "manage" under the "Badges" section, and input the following code: HOHOHO2012. But be quick, because the badge will only be available for a short time!

Despite all the new features and hard work, the Orkut team is not resting on its laurels and is preparing lots of cool stuff for 2012. So enjoy the new year's, and keep an eye on Orkut's official blog to get Orkut news first hand.

Posted by Paulo Schlup, Google Product Manager